


the island and the tide

by needchocolatenow



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 19:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needchocolatenow/pseuds/needchocolatenow
Summary: Lance is a little bit lonely, a little bit homesick, and very much head over heels. Pidge is not helpful in the least. (Except in emergencies.)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/gifts).



> For TheQueen. Your prompt was so brief so I took the liberty of stretching it out. I know you said you wanted bonding, so I hope it adequately translated here. ^^; I hope you enjoy reading and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Lance was the first to realize it, the strange physical attraction that he had in relation to Keith. They spent an inordinate amount of time together, though that was to be expected as they lived together, but the castle was large, had enough space that if someone didn’t want to be found, they wouldn’t, not for days. Lance sought out Keith during their downtimes, ready with a smile and a laugh.

Most of the time when Lance showed up next to him, Keith would raise an eyebrow at him and ask some offbeat question like:  _ is Pidge mind-controlling you _ or  _ did you draw the short straw _ . Lance would roll his eyes, swinging an arm over Keith’s shoulder to lead him out into the common room to socialize, insistent that they both needed to relax. 

Sometimes though, when Lance would least expect it, Keith would smile back, bright and lively, catching Lance entirely off guard. He’d punch Lance in the shoulder, say something incredibly lame and dorky, and Lance would laugh and laugh, heart skipping a beat in his chest for no reason at all. 

Hunk had literally guffawed for a whole minute at him the first time when Lance asked if it was okay for him to go hang out with Keith. 

Pidge had looked like she wanted to punch something. Or someone. 

Shiro’s eyebrows had gone so high up, they practically flew off his face.

 

* * *

 

“Whatever you do, do not look back!”

Keith’s voice sounded breathless and frenzied as they raced through the underground tunnel beneath an abandoned Galra base. 

Taegeios had been considered part of Galra territory, and yet, their only outpost on the planet had been abandoned for what looked like centuries. If there was one spot that looked like it was a promising place for a rebellion-like plot to have occurred, this place was the prime suspect.

Lance had a bad feeling the moment they landed on Taegeios and exited their Lions. There was just something ominous about the place and not at all friendly, like Allura and Shiro had hoped. 

Now, the true reason as to why the planet had been abandoned reared its head: a multitude of bipedal aliens that multiplied at an accelerated rate had taken over, likely forcing the Galrans back into space. They were absolutely not cordial, liked to bite, and each had the strength of ten Alluras. 

“We’re fucked!” Lance screamed. 

“Left! Go left!” Pidge yelled into Lance’s ear. 

She wasn’t there, somehow having escaped the terrible fall into the underground hive (it seemed that Lance and Keith had been the only two to have gotten caught on the weak platform and it was not because they were  _ arguing, _ but clearly there was a conspiracy here), and was feeding diligent, if albeit hectic, instructions into their ears as to where to go. 

Lance wailed the moment he turned the corner and saw nowhere left to run. “Wrong choice, Pidge! Dead end; we’re gonna die!” 

“The only way we’re going to die is over my dead body,” Lance thought he heard Keith mutter. 

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Lance screamed, leveling his bayard as he let loose a few shots into the mob of aliens that swarmed them. It didn’t seem to do anything to lessen the numbers, much less deter the rest. 

“Back up as close as you can to the back wall,” Pidge instructed. “Now, as fast as you can!” 

Lance was about to dive for the back wall when a long arm snagged him by his shoulder and dragged him away. For a moment, his eyes met Keith’s, seeing the mirrored expression of shock before he was wrenched to face his attacker. 

He was going to die, there was no doubt about it. The alien’s grip on his shoulder had crushed and dented the armor inward, but Lance couldn’t feel any pain. All he saw was the snarl of the alien’s mouth, the sharp teeth that protruded from it dripping with saliva.

An almighty roar sounded from behind Lance. Keith was suddenly jumping into the fray, brandishing his bayard like an axe, his eyes bright with an incandescent fury. With a single cleave, Keith severed the arm that was holding onto Lance, not wasting any time in pulling Lance back and away from the floundering alien.

“Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!” Keith yelled into the comm. 

He hauled Lance to his feet none too gently and practically smashed him against the back wall, using his own body as a buffer between Lance and the aliens. Howls and screeches rattled against Lance’s eardrums, inhuman and hair-raising, when the ceiling cracked and collapsed inward, a giant metal paw being the culprit. 

“Please don’t tell me I crushed them,” Shiro said, though he didn’t sound too distressed about it. The remainder of the aliens screamed and scattered, not one bothering to stay behind. 

It took the both of them a moment to form words.

“We’re alive,” Keith replied. 

“Holy quiznack,” Lance breathed, his legs feeling more and more like jelly as the seconds passed. His head swiveled to Keith, eyes wide. “Holy quiznack! What the heck was that?! You were like...like some crazy berserker right there! Why? Why’d you do that? They could have grabbed you too! And then Shiro really would have crushed us!” 

Despite what Lance was saying, Keith was looking at  _ him _ like he was crazy. 

“Lance,” Keith said, drawing out the name slow and cautiously. Or was that just him? It sounded a bit like Keith was on the other side of a glass wall while he was at the bottom of an ocean. 

“Man, you do not have to be the hero all the time,” Lance said, trying to blink away the sudden blurred vision. The whole thing had happened so fast, his blood was pumping so quickly and adrenaline spiking to new heights, it took a moment for Lance to recognize what was happening as the world started to grey out, going fuzzier and fuzzier. 

Keith hooked an arm around Lance’s waist just as his legs gave out, yelling something incomprehensible. 

“I guess you were pretty cool though,” Lance muttered. “My hero. Who would have thought?” 

“Lance? Stay with me, keep talking. Shiro, we need some help out here!” 

He felt so tired he could have yawned, if his jaw was cooperating. All of a sudden, everything was so heavy, his body sluggish; he needed a nap, if only for a little while. 

“Mmm, I’m not Shiro,” Lance said, closing his eyes and leaning into Keith. Keith wouldn’t mind, especially not when he’d been shooting looks at Lance when he thought Lance wasn’t looking. 

But Lance was definitely looking.

 

* * *

 

Space was lonelier than Lance expected. It was nothing but a deep darkness that surrounded them, a near-freezing vacuum with no atmosphere. A man would boil alive first before dying to exposure or even suffocating out there. Lance knew about the conditions of space travel--he had signed up to be a pilot in the Galaxy Garrison’s exploration program, how could he  _ not _ know--but what he knew intellectually was vastly different from actually experiencing it. 

It was lonely because instead of the cramped quarters that a crew would share on one small vessel, they had a castle that could easily house hundreds. And yet the total population of the Castle of Lions was: five Earthlings, two Alteans, and three Altean mice. 

Space (har har!) was not an issue. 

No man was an island, the saying went, but sometimes it felt like everyone was an island and Lance was the tide, desperately eroding high, unreachable cliffs.

 

* * *

 

All the paladins were sitting on the sunken white couches, exhausted in every sense of the word after the harrowing ordeal on Taegeios. The team had to split up in order to get Lance to the healing pod; Pidge and Hunk had stayed behind on the planet to dive through old data storages. The aliens, having been scared away from Lance and Keith by the Black Lion, took to searching for Hunk and Pidge in a long, harrowing six-hour hide-and-seek pursuit until Keith and Shiro could fly back to the planet to provide backup. It had been a terrifying, grueling event.

This gathering was reassurance, Lance told himself, to visibly see that everyone was still alive and well. 

Lance and Keith sat shoulder to shoulder, closer than Lance had ever recalled them being when not in a dire situation. Keith had always run warm, but now, it was like Keith was a furnace, every bit of him that was touching Lance feeling like the sun on the hottest summer day. 

All Lance wanted to do was bask in it, to lay his head down on Keith’s shoulder, pull him close as if that would help Lance understand the very core of Keith. 

“Your hair’s getting longer,” Lance blurted. 

Keith leveled him a stare that spoke volumes. “Yes,” Keith said slowly after a beat. “Hair does that. It grows.” 

Lance rolled his eyes, but cracked a grin anyway, the beginnings of a hazy, molten feeling trickling into his gut. 

On the other side of him, Hunk was already passed out, breaths coming out even and slow. He had been the one to stay awake, standing on vigil, worried out of his mind for Lance for the whole eight hours he’d been inside the healing pod. The moment Hunk sat down on the couch, he was out like a light.

“Rest well, buddy,” Lance said, a rush of fondness and love swelling within him as he laid a hand gently down onto Hunk’s knee. 

Hunk twitched, but otherwise remained asleep, firmly ensconced in the world of dreams. 

Lance turned his attention back to Keith and was startled to find the other man just inches away, practically nose to nose. Keith’s expression was unreadable, his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed into a tiny squint. 

It was cute, it was charming, and Lance had never wanted to smooth out the space between someone’s brows so much than in that moment and his hands twitched, almost as an involuntary response. 

“Kisssss,” came the whispered noise from Pidge. Her head was pillowed on a sleeping Shiro’s thigh, her glasses tucked away somewhere safe. She had one eye opened and a tired, teasing smile on her face. 

If he wasn’t still so exhausted, Lance probably would have thought his next action through. Probably would have reconsidered everything he was about to do and then some. Would have pondered how he got to this point in his life, how exactly did he come to this. 

His bones felt like liquid, his mind like jelly, and yet he registered the vague expression that Keith made as shock. Color itself seemed to seep from his vision and sound became an afterthought as Lance leaned in close to Keith, the world narrowed down to just the two of them. Keith was stock still, completely unmoving. 

Lance swerved at the last moment, some remnant of brain cells working on overdrive, and pressed a small, simple kiss to Keith’s cheek. 

“Done,” Lance said, settling back, deliberately tilting his face upwards to look at a spot at the ceiling above his head. 

Everything felt like it was on fire and there was no hiding, not here; he wore his heart on his sleeve more often than not and was definitely not complicated to read. There wasn’t much that held Lance back; he had always been an open book to anyone willing to look. 

Next to him, Keith still hadn’t moved. 

Lance couldn’t imagine what kind of expression was on Keith’s face, so he shut his eyes, pretended that he was back in his room and that none of the past minute had happened. That he hadn’t just impulsively tried to kiss Keith because Pidge, of all people, was egging him on. 

At first there was just silence, broken by the soft rhythmic sounds of sleeping breaths, and when Keith sighed, it sounded more like an exhale than anything, nearly indistinguishable from the ambiance. Lance determinedly continued to ignore his presence on the couch. 

Then, almost tentatively, like a child approaching something new and delicate for the first time, Lance felt a weight drop onto his shoulder. There was no mistake about it: Keith was using his shoulder for a pillow. Consciously and without any provocation. 

Lance almost opened his eyes to look. 

Across the way, Pidge mock whispered: “Chicken shiiiit.” 

Following that, there was a thwack and a groan. 

“Language,” said Shiro, who had been feigning sleep after all.

 

* * *

 

The next planet was, thankfully, nothing like Taegeios. There was one sun in the sky, six moons, and the oceans were green. It was a primitive planet, with only the barest and simplest of lifeforms, and yet, there was something about it that reminded Lance of Earth.

It was the sun, he decided as he flopped down on the orange colored sand. It was the sun, the sounds of the ocean, the sounds and visions of  _ life _ that he missed. To know that he was surrounded by things that was alive. 

“Different,” Shiro commented. “But I can see the similarities.” 

“I’m going foraging!” Hunk declared. “No more space goo! My palate can’t take it anymore!” 

Lance sighed, explosively and theatrically. “We’re the defenders of the universe! I don’t understand how we’re broke. Why can’t we get a bit of a salary or something for what we do?” 

The ensuing silence told him all he needed to know what the others thought about that. 

“I’m going to go with Hunk,” said Shiro. “Pidge, you come too.” 

Pidge, who had been about to wade into the green seawater, made a face at Shiro. “Fine,” she said. “But if I pick poison mushrooms, it’s not my fault. I know nothing about the local fauna here.” 

“Then don’t pick any mushrooms,” Shiro said, as if that was a happy compromise. 

Lance laughed and waved as they left, deliberately enjoying the sun and the sounds this planet offered. Distant buzzes and croaks of insects littered the air, occasionally interrupted by a loud squawking sound from a creature that Lance couldn’t see. He dozed lightly on the sand, floating between dreams of lonely islands and blue ocean tides.

A shadow fell over him.

“Hey.” 

Lance blinked and looked up, squinting at Keith, who was shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. Lance felt a grin widen on his face and he grabbed at Keith’s wrist to try and pull him down.

“Hey! Come join me on the beach on this fabulous day!” 

Keith wrinkled his nose. “Sand gets everywhere,” he grumbled, sitting down on his knees instead of lying down like Lance. “How can you lie down here? What if there’s...stuff in the sand and it gets into your head?” 

“You mean like parasites?” 

It was cute watching Keith glare down at the orange colored sand as if it had done something to personally offend him. Lance couldn’t contain the laughter from bubbling up inside of him, so he laughed and tugged at Keith some more. 

“We’ve got those Altean healing pods back at the castle. We’ll be fine! Don’t be a scaredy cat.” Lance grinned, thought that hardly seemed to mollify Keith. Instead, it had an unintended effect and Lance watched as the fire of competition ignited within Keith’s eyes. 

“Were you just going to lay here on the sand all day?” Keith asked, a hint of cockiness in his voice. “Or were you thinking of going for a swim?” 

Lance shot up off the sand, laughing all the while. “Weren’t you just complaining about parasites?”

Keith was already stripping off his jacket and shirt, grinning wildly at Lance. A dusky color arose in his cheeks, making him look younger and vivacious. “What, are you too chicken to get in the water?”

“Oh, hell no.” 

Lance was only a fraction of a second behind Keith in stripping off his clothes sans boxers and rushing into the water after him. It was cold, slightly salty, but felt exactly as water should and the waves were a pleasant, wonderful sensation that reminded Lance all the more of Earth. 

Keith wasted no time in trying to dunk Lance underneath the water and Lance was more than amenable to underwater grappling, doing whatever that he could to flip their positions. If he ended up touching Keith more than necessary and vice versa, well, there was no one else watching.

The end of the day came swiftly, the sun setting beyond the mountains in only an hour. Neither of them contracted any parasites of any sort after their romp through the sea, though at the end of it, they both came down with the fastest working spell of flu in the universe. 

If this could be weaponized and sent to the Galra, Lance mused, the universe would be saved in less than a day. Not even Zarkon could be immune to this.

“Worth it,” Lance wheezed in between sneezes as Allura glared at him. 

Keith groaned something incoherent, his head pillowed on the table like a sad sack of potatoes.

 

* * *

 

There were many planets that they visited and while all of them were new and exciting, Lance couldn’t help but compare them to Earth. Maybe the sun was just the right amount of warm, there was only one moon, the grass was green. Little things, sometimes even superficial ones, like having a blue sky.

Lance wasn’t shy about admitting he missed Earth (home, really), but he rarely voiced it in general. It wasn’t helpful in any situation because he was certain everyone knew already. 

Home was now a giant castle that flew through space with more empty rooms than there were people to fill it. And the people that were there? 

Well, Lance would realistically put their chances of surviving the war against the Galra Empire at fifty-fifty.

 

* * *

 

“This is disgusting,” Lance grumbled as he slogged through the marsh. Foul liquid sluiced into his boots, every step he took making terrible squelching sounds as he attempted to circle his Lion. 

Blue was almost completely offline; the only thing she managed to erect was the particle barrier that would protect her from physical damage before falling silent. Trapped inside of it, Lance could only try to maneuver around to see if he could leave; he highly doubted it, but it was worth a shot. 

He had been attempting to send a message to the other paladins and to the castle, but something was off; all he got was static or incredibly shrill feedback. There was something wrong with communications and Lance had no idea on how he could fix that because as far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with the equipment. He could only surmise that there was something in the air or in the atmosphere that was blocking his signals from getting through. 

The other paladins had seen him crash land here after separating out from Voltron; Lance was sure of it. If nothing else, Allura could sense the Blue Lion and send a rescue mission to get him out of this particular hellhole soon enough. 

Night was falling quickly and after the third time circling the inside of the particle barrier, Lance gave up and decided it was time to head back into Blue to await his rescue. 

He spent the first hour looking for and changing into his backup suit because he didn’t want to be walking around in swamp water, and he spent the second hour singing songs that he loved, eyes closed as he imagined being back at home in his room with his family just a thin wall away. The thought nearly brought him to tears, so he discarded the images and focused on the music floating through his mind.

When the third hour passed, Lance wondered if he should panic. He knew better though, was trained however briefly at the Garrison on how to deal with emergency situations like this (well, not  _ exactly _ like this because under no circumstances did he ever take a class on how to survive in space with a giant, sentient robot cat) and the number one rule of thumb was always: do not panic. It didn’t mean that Lance couldn’t worry. 

He meandered back into the cockpit after taking stock of his emergency rations--plentiful, if he did say so himself--and started fiddling with all of the buttons and screens, hoping to either get Blue online or to get communications back. 

“Blue, buddy, please don’t do this to me,” Lance groaned. “We’re tight, right? Any chance you’re awake and can get us back home?” 

Silence answered him. 

Lance sighed. It was about as he expected. 

“Well, since you’re not going to say anything to me, what if I told you that I’m leaving you for another Lion? Specifically, what if I told you that I was going to pilot the Red Lion?” 

Nothing, not even a flicker.

“Whatever it is, Blue, I’m sure you’ll pull through this. You’re strong and tough and that’s why you’re a leg. No one else can support the weight of Voltron except you. And Yellow, but hey, she’s like, bigger than you. Not that you’re not cool, because you are, you are my favorite and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

“Although, speaking of Red, I gotta tell you--this is strictly between you and me, buddy--a little thing happened between me and Keith a while ago. We never talked about it so I’m not really sure where to go from here. Anyway, it was just after that crazy planet with the swarm of wicked hostile aliens that broke my shoulder for a bit; all of us were just sitting in the common room and Pidge was kind of egging us on, but I sort of. Almost kissed him. Actually, let me rephrase: I kissed him, but chickened out last second and kissed him on the cheek when I really just wanted to kiss him on the mouth. And after that, he put his head on my shoulder and  _ god, _ did I feel like I wanted to kick myself because of the missed opportunity. Wish I did kiss him properly, but then again, I’m glad I didn’t because having a Pidge-audience was probably going to be like making out in front of a chatty peanut gallery.”

Lance tapped some of the buttons, testing them, but nothing happened. The controls were all still dead and Blue still wasn’t responding. 

Then, all of a sudden, the faint sound of cackling laughter sounded through Lance’s helmet. 

“That was a beautiful confession,” said Pidge just as Lance’s stomach decided to drop itself through the floor. “And you’re right, I’d have been a chatty peanut gallery, but now I have Hunk and Shiro and together, we’re going to be the super duper chatty peanut gallery squad.” 

“You forgot nosy,” Hunk said. 

Could a wormhole just open up underneath Lance and swallow him already? He was dying. He was a dead man anyway, if Keith heard it all. If, Lance repeated to himself, although the possibility of that was diminishing with every passing second.

“I don’t actually want to know,” said Shiro, sounding extremely chagrined, “but you and Keith should probably talk this over when you’re back.”

In the background, Lance could hear Allura asking: “So was all that posturing and yelling the Earthling mating dance?” 

“No, Princess,” Pidge answered. “They’re just idiots in love.” 

“Goddamn it, Pidge! Shut up!” Keith yelled, his voice sounding an octave higher than usual.

Yup, he heard. 

Lance could really use that wormhole right about now.

 

* * *

 

Figured that this was how it was going to be, Lance thought to himself as everyone around the dinner table excused themselves in the most indiscreet way possible, leaving just him and Keith remaining. 

“Have a nice chat,” Pidge said, smirk evident in her voice as Shiro unabashedly maneuvered her out of the room. “I’d stay and watch, but--”

“We need to talk about your voyeuristic tendencies,” interrupted Shiro, his voice pinched.

The door shut behind them and maybe Lance and Keith wouldn’t be ones having the most painful conversation this evening. 

At first, neither of them said anything and stared at everything besides each other. It was majorly awkward and Lance couldn’t seem to get his ears to stop burning. Deciding to gather his courage and counting to three, Lance turned to Keith.

Keith was staring right back, a stubborn sort of resolution set to his jaws, a faint blush creeping up his neck and into his cheeks. 

And just like that, Lance was gone. 

“I want to kiss you,” Lance blurted, the fire in his face burning hotter than before, and yet he was determined to plow on. “Can I?” 

Keith blinked, nodding almost imperceptibly, and that was all the permission that Lance needed before he was surging forward, pressing the kiss that he wanted to all those weeks ago onto Keith’s mouth. Keith responded in kind, his lips surprisingly soft as he kissed back, making an electric current zing through the entirety of Lance’s body to end at his toes. 

It was a short kiss, but all the words that Lance wanted to say seemed to have evaporated right out of his skull. 

It wasn’t the same for Keith though, who managed to keep his wits about him. He smiled and threaded their fingers together lightly. 

“Lance,” Keith began, “I don’t know how or even when, but somewhere along the way, all I could think about was you. You’re an idiot.” 

“Hey! I resent that!” Lance somehow found his voice again, even when Keith’s thumb running over his knuckles unconsciously was doing funny things to his stomach. It felt like a billion butterflies were fluttering in there.

Keith rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot,” he repeated, as if for emphasis. “I can’t help but notice you, even when you don’t want to be noticed.” Keith reached forward with his other hand to brush his palm over Lance’s cheek, his eyes soft and fond. “You’re not alone.” 

At first, Lance wasn’t sure how to respond. He could only gape at Keith as his brain tried to make sense of things, but still, no words would come. The earlier outburst had been a fluke.

“This castle can seem…big, but I can’t seem to avoid you. You make this place more lively and less lonely, even if you can’t see it. You should know that we’re all here for you. I’m here for you. So if you don’t want to be alone, you don’t have to.” 

Lance worked his jaw, but the only word to come spilling out was a choked: “Keith.”

“I like you,” said Keith. “A lot.”

“Yeah,” said Lance, finally. He sounded like a frog. “I like you too. A lot.”

Keith leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, slow and tender. This close, Lance could see every tiny aspect of Keith’s face in vivid detail. The light, nearly invisible spattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose. The rosy color of his cheeks. The violet of his eyes. 

“I want to kiss you,” whispered Keith, his gaze focused onto Lance’s mouth. “Can I?” 

Lance blinked and nodded.

 

* * *

 

“So...did you use tongue?” Pidge asked. “Did you get to third base? Home run? Is the dining table safe to eat at?”

“Why are you like this?” Lance groaned, hiding his face in his hands. 

### End

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to citsiurtlanu for the beta and for being my emotional rubber duck!


End file.
